New Cerritos ordinance bans sex offenders from city parks, libraries

CERRITOS - Registered sex offenders won't be allowed in city parks or many other public facilities under an ordinance approved last week by the City Council.

Gary Berg, the city's director of community and safety services, told the council Thursday that passing the ordinance isn't going to prevent crime and enforcing it is problematic.

Nevertheless, the council passed the ordinance 4-1. Council members Jim Edwards, Bruce W. Barrows, Carol K. Chen and Mark E. Pulido voted in favor of the ordinance. Councilman Joseph Cho was the dissenting vote.

The council must vote again on the ordinance on a second reading at its Aug. 23 meeting. If the council approves it, the ordinance would go into effect 30 days later.

The proposed ordinance would ban registered sex offenders from any city park and several city facilities - the Civic Center, the library, the Center for the Performing Arts and the Senior Center.

Registered sex offenders have the option of asking permission from either the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department or the city's director of community and safety services to enter any of these facilities, according to the proposed ordinance.

The four council members said they supported banning registered sex offenders from all public places as a means of protecting the public.

Councilman Cho asked Berg what information he had to justify supporting the ordinance, such as the number of child sex crimes committed at parks, how many children have been kidnapped in public places or if the parks or Civic Center are dangerous places.

"We have no information to suggest we have a problem in our parks," Berg said.

He also said enforcement of the proposed ordinance is problematic.

In reality, deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department don't know the faces of all registered sex offenders and would have to wait for someone to report an incident to them before they could investigate, Berg said.

"These unenforceable laws don't make children safe," Cho said. "They are designed to make politicians look tough on crime and to make people feel good."

The council began discussing the idea of an ordinance last October after municipalities in Orange and Los Angeles counties passed similar measures.

In October, Los Alamitos passed an ordinance setting up "child safety zones" that ban sex offenders from city parks and playgrounds. Los Alamitos modeled its law after a measure passed by the Orange County Board of Supervisors, adopted nearly a year ago.

The county ordinance makes it a misdemeanor for a registered sex offender to enter - without permission of the Sheriff's Department - county recreational areas where children regularly gather.

After studying the issue at its Jan. 18 meeting, Cerritos' Community Safety Committee recommended to the council an ordinance that only restricts registered sex offenders convicted of sex acts involving minors. Committee members were concerned that a broader ordinance might be vulnerable to a lawsuit, according to the staff reports.

However, at its Feb. 2 meeting, the Parks and Recreation Commission recommended to the council an ordinance banning all registered sex offenders from entering city parks.